Yield: 6 mocha muffins // Total Time: 30 min. // Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links.

espresso chocolate chip muffins with an espresso glaze

These espresso chocolate chip muffins with an espresso glaze, or mocha muffins for short, are the perfect muffin for coffee lovers like myself. First of all, they are SUPER moist and fluffy. They’re also filled with coffee grounds (they don’t give you a weird texture, trust me) and mini chocolate chips, topped off with a coffee streusel and an espresso glaze. They’re loaded with coffee/espresso flavor.

recipe tips

weigh your ingredients

Weighing your ingredients is important for getting the recipe perfect and getting consistent results. Not weighing your ingredients can lead to adding too much or too little of an ingredient and can easily throw off a recipe. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend purchasing a kitchen scale. This one is super cheap and worked well for me when I was starting out! If you don’t have access to a scale, here is the best way to measure flour:

• How to measure flour with cups: fluff up the flour with a fork, then use a spoon to scoop it into your measuring cup. Use a knife to level off the top of the cup, then use as directed.

mix the batter carefully

It is super important to not overmix the muffin batter. Overmixing the batter leads to more gluten development which will take your muffins from light and fluffy to tough and chewy. If you’ve ever had your muffin tops be super pointy – overmixing is also the culprit! Be sure to mix the flour gently into the batter, and stop mixing right when that last flour streak disappears.

room temperature ingredients

It is important for the ingredients to be at room temperature so that they properly incorporate with each other. Here’s how to get room temperature ingredients FAST if you’re in a time crunch or forgot to take the ingredients out (like I often do):

• Egg: place the egg in a bowl and run hot water over it for 1 continuous minute, or let it sit in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.
• Sour cream and milk: microwave each in 5-second intervals until it is no longer cold, but is not warm (room temp!)

keep an eye on those muffins!

Muffins like to go from under-baked to over-baked super quickly so it is important to keep a close eye on them. Start checking at 14 minutes with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out wet, check them again in 2 minutes and so on until only a few moist crumbs stick to the toothpick.

how to get bakery style muffin tops

The trick to getting those nicely domed muffin tops is (mostly) all in your oven’s temperature! Bake the muffins at 425°F / 220°C for 5 minutes. Then, without opening the oven, reduce the temperature to 350°F / 175°C and continue baking until done. The super high heat will make the muffins rise nice and tall! You will also want to bake them lined in every other tin on the muffin pan, and fill them to the very top. This recipe makes the perfect amount of batter to fill every muffin liner straight to the top for those perfect muffin tops!

how to evenly distribute your muffin batter

My favorite way to evenly distribute muffin batter is to use cookie scoops! Works perfectly every time. So long are the days of eyeballing which muffin may need a little more batter.

ingredients and substitutions

All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness. We will use flour in the muffins and some in the streusel.

Ground coffee: don’t be scared, but we’re going to put coffee grounds straight into the batter and in the streusel. They are 100% safe to eat, and help us pack a ton of coffee flavor into these muffins. We will use some in the muffins and some in the streusel. If you don’t have coffee grounds, you can use instant espresso or instant coffee in it’s place!

Baking powder: for helping the muffins rise.

Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the muffins.

Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the muffins. We will use butter in the muffins and some in the streusel.

Granulated sugar: for sweetening the muffins and helping them retain moisture.

Egg: for binding and for moisture.

Vanilla: for flavor.

Kefir: for moisture and making sure the muffins stay tender, I used whole milk plain kefir. You can substitute in buttermilk or greek yogurt if needed.

Mini chocolate chips: I love using mini chocolate chips because they make sure you get a little bit of chocolate in every bite. You can use regular-sized chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or a chopped baking bar here as well.

Light brown sugar: for the streusel. If you don’t have brown sugar, you can use granulated in the streusel!

Powdered sugar: to make a simple espresso glaze.

Espresso: fresh brewed espresso, instant espresso, or strong coffee will work here.

how to make mocha muffins

small batch mocha muffins q&a

how to store these muffins

Like most baked goods, these muffins will definitely taste the best on the day that they are baked. They will last for up to 3 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

can I double this recipe?

Of course! Simply double all of the ingredients in the recipe to make 12 delicious mocha muffins. I even more strongly recommend measuring by weight if you are going to double the recipe for the best results.

why are there coffee grounds in the muffins?

In this recipe, the grounds are directly in the batter and streusel in order to get the most flavor put into them. If we were to use brewed coffee, these muffins would be more dry and less tender since we would be hydrating them with water rather than sour cream. Don’t worry, it is 100% safe to eat! I personally love the taste that it brings, but if you would prefer something else, you can dissolve instant espresso or coffee in the room temperature kefir before using!

a note on oven temperature

Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature. For example, I always have to set my oven to 330°F if I want it to bake at 350°F. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.

tools and ingredients

You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!